The greatest testament to the late Bob McGruder’s stature as an editor and mentor is that I cannot remember when I met him.

That’s what happens when someone is so steadfast, so available, so omnipotent, it is as if he were always there, always watching and offering cogent advice.

And that was before I ever worked for him.

He was the dean, and from his perch at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he had been the paper’s first black reporter and later became its first black managing editor, he guided not only his own staff, but dozens of black journalists nationwide.

He was the blueprint, the role model, the way. So it is no surprise that Bob McGruder would receive the 2018 NABJ Legacy Award for his career-long mission: fighting for diversity.

Bob’s move to Detroit mirrored my own. In 1986, then-managing editor Neal Shine hired Bob after a decade of attempts. Bob moved up to managing editor, second-in-command, by January 1993.

Bob attempted to hire me twice over a decade before the third time became the charm in September 2000.

The first time, I didn’t see Detroit as a fixer upper. I saw it as a total gut.

The second time came in 1992, and I was almost ready. But another newspaper offered me a job helping to run their newsroom. Bob took me out for a steak dinner and said I had to take that other job in his hometown of Louisville, Ky.

But the third time, in 2000, after the world had survived Y2K, and the Free Press had survived a strike and entrance into a joint operating agreement with the Detroit News, Bob came calling again.

I had left editing to become a more hands-on mom, and he offered me a job doing what I had been doing in Louisville, writing a column.

That third time, he helped me see the possibility of the Detroit that exists now, the one that we knew could happen, the one that reminds of what the city once was and could surpass.

He announced that he had cancer the month I arrived. He had never said anything before. Had he, I might not have come. But thank God I did because I was able to work with the man who had guided my career from afar up close.

He was there. He was present. He was Bob. And after he was gone, he was still there. He had prepared me. I feel like I’m still working for him now every day.

That brings me to the second greatest testament to Bob’s stature as an editor: I know dozens of people who can all say the same thing about his nurturing of them and his absolute and persistent devotion to diversity.

“Bob was the first person when I was a high school student, who sat us down and talked to us about the importance of being a journalist of color, what that meant, how we should represent, just being able to make a difference,” said Marlon A. Walker, an education reporter with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “That was 20 years ago now but I carry that in everything I do, from job to job.”

“In professions like journalism, that are not historically warm to people of color, it was vital to have leaders like Bob McGruder in the building,” she said. “Just his presence was enough to arm journalists with the confidence and courage to fight for the stories of underrepresented people, and also fight for a seat at the management table.

“His contribution to journalism speaks for itself,” she said. “He will not be forgotten.”

Bob is receiving the Legacy Award because, the NABJ announcement said, he is among those print, broadcast, digital or photojournalists who have made extraordinary accomplishments or “broken barriers and blazed trails.”

He is receiving the Legacy Award because he “created a legion of award-winning writers, editors and managers.”

I am among the legion.

I am one of those nurtured.

In our newsroom hangs a glass plaque bearing these words:

“Please know that I stand for diversity. I represent diversity. I am the messenger and the message of diversity.”

Bob said those words in 2001 when he received the John S. Knight Gold Medal, the highest award that existed in Knight Ridder, the late company that owned the Free Press.

What is not on the glass is what he said next, which I believe is just as important:

"I represent the African-Americans, Latinos, Arab-Americans, Asians, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, women and all the others we must see represented in our business offices, newsrooms and our newspapers if we truly want to meet the challenge of serving our communities.”

Bob knew his mission, and it became mine.

It is to fight against what some people clamor for: a color blind society. We don’t need a color blind society. We need a society that is not fearful of color, of difference.

We need a society that embraces various cultures with relish rather than disdain. We need a society that doesn’t try to push people to adapt to a historical narrative but reflects the varied narratives that make up the story of America.

When we do that and respect the diversity that exists, then we honor people like Bob, keep his legacy.

He was the messenger and the message.

And so am I.

For tickets to the Salute to Excellence Gala at which McGruder will be honored, go to www.nabjconvention.com.

Rochelle Riley’s columns will appear on Sundays through the summer. Contact her at rriley99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @rochelleriley. Get information about her book at www.rochelleriley.com.